The Bush administration believes it can win approval of a free trade agreement with South Korea by early 2009, despite strong opposition from Democratic leaders, a US trade official said on Thursday.
"Our hope would be simply the agreement would be passed with all due speed. I certainly would look for it to be enacted during the tenure of this administration," Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia said at a discussion on the pact.
Bhatia said the agreement was too important, for both economic and geopolitical reasons, to let fail. But he acknowledged its supporters "have a long, hard education process ahead of us" to win Congress over.
Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives have demanded changes in the automotive provisions of the agreement before they will support the pact signed on June 30. The legislatures of both countries must ratify the pact.
The Democrats believe the agreement gives South Korean automakers too much new access to the US market, while doing too little to tear down "nontariff barriers" that have kept American cars out of South Korea.
That tough stance - and the administration's refusal to renegotiate the auto provisions - has led many to believe the pact might not get to Congress until a new US administration takes office after the November 2008 election.
Nick Giordano, vice president for international trade policy at the National Pork Producers Council, said US farm groups were prepared to make an "unprecedented push" for the agreement because of the new export opportunities it provides.